Local non-violent strategies amid Guatemala's post-accord violence: understanding the potential and limitations in poor urban neighbourhoods

• Published in: Peacebuilding 2024-07, Vol.12 (3), p.299-316
• Main Author: Herrera Kelly, Daniel S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: agency; Guatemala; local; Non-violence; post-accord
• ISSN: 2164-7259; 2164-7267
• DOI: 10.1080/21647259.2023.2251283

The impact residents of violence-affected communities can have on addressing insecurity is underexplored, particularly amid criminal violence. In non-conflict contexts, can non-violent actions by committed individuals transform their violent environments given criminal groups' social control and capacity to exert violence? Investigating two urban neighbourhoods in post-accord Guatemala, the article evidences how residents engage in violence disruption, breaking generalised self-protection strategies - silence, avoidance and displacement - to proactively address local violence. In doing so, residents can attain tangible security improvements and foster cohesion, social capital and informal leadership - facilitating further collective action. The article draws on 47 interviews, triangulated with police data and documentary evidence. The article contributes novel empirical evidence on the underexplored phenomenon of non-violent engagement with criminal groups. Conceptually, the article advances the emerging concept of violence disruption as a distinct form of agency and a useful framework to neither overlook nor overstate the impact of grassroots strategies.